In what ways has texass geography influenced its political culture how has it changed over time

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Overview of the Text (pp. 1-37)

Like the other 49 members of the Federal Union, Texas has land, people, and a state government that makes, enforces, and interprets laws.

Political Behavior Patterns (pp. 3-9). As a result of political action, public policy is formulated, adopted, and implemented by government. The shaping of public policy in Texas is affected by the state's political culture and geography. Daniel Elazar has classified Texas's political culture as strongly conservative and individualistic. Because of the traditionalistic influence of the Old South, many Texans have inherited racist attitudes. As a result of their war for independence from Mexico, decades of frontier conflict with Native Americans, range wars, and other forms of violence, Texans became accustomed to struggling for survival and settling disputes by force. Today, new influences in an urbanized society are affecting attitudes and reshaping the state's political culture.

The Land (pp. 9-15). Encompassing about 267,000 square miles of territory, Texas is the second largest state. Because of its size, Texas entered the Union with authorization to subdivide into as many as five states.

Cattle, cotton, and oil emerged at different times as dominant elements in Texas's economy and strongly influenced the state's politics. With dropping oil prices and reduced production in the mid-1980s, Texas experienced a sharp decline in government revenue from this source. Early in the twenty-first century, the oil and natural gas industry accounted for less than 6 percent of the state's economy. In 2006, however, he price oil rose to more than $70 per barrel.

The People (pp. 15-24). According to the federal census estimate of 2005, Texas had a population of about 22.9 million. This amounts to an increase of 34.6 percent from the census total for 1990. As a result of urbanization and suburbanization , more than 85 percent of the state's population is located in metropolitan areas.. Population percentages (rounded) for Texas's principal ethnic/racial groups in 2000 were Anglo, 52; Latino, 32; African American, 11; and Asian American, 3. There were less than 70,000 Native Americans. Latinos are Texas's fastest-growing population group. By 2005, however, a federal census estimate indicated that less than half of the state's population could be classified as Anglo. Latinos now constitute more than a third of all Texans, and African Americans amount to more than a tenth.

Searching for New Economic Directions (pp. 24-30). The decline of Texas's petroleum industry in the 1980s dealt a blow to the Texas economy, and the bankruptcy of the Houston-headquarterd Enron Corporation in 2001 resulted in loss of money by investors and loss of jobs by thousands of employees. Nevertheless, growth of the state's high-tech and biotech industries illustrate the state's economic development. Texas businesses providing health care, personal services, and commercial services have expanded rapidly; but jobs in these service industries tend to pay lower wages and salaries than jobs with manufacturing companies.

The Lone Star State leads the nation as a producer of beef, wool, mohair, cotton, and grain sorghum. The number of Texas farms and ranches has changed from more than 500,000 in the 1930s to about 230,000 in 2006, while the average size of each agricultural unit has increased from 300 acres to approximately 564 acres.

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was approved in 1993, U.S. trade with Mexico and Canada has increased. Despite related traffic and pollution problems, NAFTA has resulted in jobs and business opportunities for many Texans, but others have been adversely affected by foreign competition. Meanwhile, Mexico continues to be plagued with serious economic and political problems.

Meeting New Challenges: Social and Economic Policy Issues (pp. 30-37). In recent years, the Latino population has increased significantly as a result of an influx of undocumented aliens from Mexico. Although the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and the Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1996 were designed to discourage illegal immigration, undocumented aliens continued to cross the Mexican border in search of employment. After the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center in 2002, the U.S. Congress passed the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, which strengthens efforts to prevent illegal immigration. Nevertheless, immigration control and the legal status of undocumented aliens continue to be burning political issues in Texas and nationwide.

Among other challenges faced by Texans are growing water needs, inadequate environmental protection efforts, failure of schools to educate the state's youth for productive roles in an increasingly competitive world economy, and serious poverty-related social problems.

Looking Ahead (p. 37). Human needs and natural disasters will call for government actions in the years ahead. But Texans must realize that their ability to cope with future problems depends on how well our homes and schools prepare young Texans for global change in the twenty-first century.

While guarding national borders and setting conditions for citizenship are federal responsibilities, the size and scope of illegal immigration to the United States have increasingly led border states to develop their own policies, in addition to becoming involved in enforcing national immigration laws. The total undocumented population in this country is estimated to be around 11 million people. Texas, with about 14 percent of the total, is the state with the second largest percent of that undocumented population, about 1,400,000 people. This means that unauthorized immigrants account for about 6 percent of the total population of Texas.

State government leaders in Austin, like those in other state capitals throughout the country, have considered a range of proposals. Some state bills address documentation requirements and penalties for employers of undocumented workers. Other proposals include limiting access to a number of benefits only to those who can prove citizenship or legal resident status, restricting access to drivers' licenses and identification cards to citizens, requiring proof of U.S. citizenship before voting, and withholding in-state tuition benefits to state residents who cannot prove U.S. citizenship. Further, lawmakers have contemplated whether state and local police forces should have increasing responsibility for enforcement of federal immigration laws. As Kellie Dworaczyk points out, there is not yet a consensus among the states about how to deal with any of these issues; those on all sides can make rational arguments for their preferred outcome. Clearly, the debate over immigration will continue to rage at both the state and the federal level for years to come.

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After reading this chapter, students will be able to:

1. Illustrate how public policy is formulated, adopted, and implemented.
2. Define political culture, and explain how political culture has influenced politics in the Lone Star State.
3. Describe how the frontier experience helped shape political culture in Texas.
4. Identify the four principal physical regions of Texas and describe important geographic features of each region.
5. Describe the origin and development of cattle ranching, cotton farming, and oil production in Texas.
6. Discuss population growth, distribution, and changes that have accompanied urbanization and metropolitanization in Texas.
7. Identify the three most numerous racial/ethnic groups in Texas today, and note the size and location of the state's Native American and Asian American populations.
8. Explain how the economy of Texas is influenced by high-tech and biotech research and development, services, agriculture, and trade.
9. Discuss the importance of the immigration issue for Texans.
10. Identify important environmental, water supply, social, and economic problems facing policymakers in the Lone Star State.
11. Propose new public policies for Texas as the state meets important challenges in the early years of the twenty-first century.